The class was listening to my every word.
I had just talked in length about how great playing tug o war is with your dog.
Most of the people in class thought that it was bad to play tug games and my take on it prompted a lot of questions.
I explained how you can use tug games to teach obedience. One lady attending asked a lot of questions and we talked in great detail about how it would help her dog.
At the end of class as everyone was leaving this lady approached me with her dog. She must be coming towards me to tell me how informational the class was.
I bet she is going to tell me how amazing the discussion was.
As she moved closer to me, I could see the big smile on her face. Here it comes, I thought, try not to look to smug.
She approached and said: “Can you hold my dog while I go to the bathroom?”
“Yes, yes, of course,” I said as I stood there holding her dog.
Anyway, tug is a great game to teach your dog and it can be used to train.
Especially the recall (come when called) command.
Toys and games can be a stronger reward than food for some dogs. If your dog loves to play fetch or tug, you should use it to teach come when called.
I always kept a tug toy in my back pocket with my Belgian Malinois, Suede, when I was training the recall.
I would call him to me and once he got to me the tug toy came out. It’s a good idea to switch up rewards when training the recall.
Which is what I teach on The Ultimate Online Recall Course.
If you’d like your dog to come when called, pay attention, ignore distractions and have a little fun along the way, head on over and check out the course by going here NEXT:
All the best,
Eric
I always hate it when the armchair dog trainers tell folks-never let your dog when. How long would you play a game with someone who never let you win. At the end of our tug game, I trade him for something to chew on and put the tug up and say-All Done!